While the Washington Capitals spent this summer retooling the club, it still was difficult to envision the season opener they had with a 5-2 over the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh to open their season.
Skating under the Lenovo Center’s brand-new Stanley Cup banner, the Capitals’ key addition in Alex Tuch had a pair of goals in the first and Washington quieted one of the loudest buildings in the league and taking control of the game against the defending champs early and never relinquishing it.
Tuch becomes just the fifth Capital to score 2 more more goals in his Washington debut, and the most for a first-time Cap since 2013.
Tuch got a gift goal after Hurricanes netminder Brandon Bussi misplayed a puck and lost it to Pierre-Luc Dubois behind the net, who sent it in front to Tuch for an empty-net tally just 6:33 into the game.
”I don’t think I’ve scored many of those goals in my career, it was really nice, great play by [Dubois] and the forecheck there,” Tuch said.
The Capitals then put on one of its best 10-minute stretches in recent memory, pinning the Hurricanes in their own and scoring two more before the frame was out, with Cole Hutson netting his first after an excellent shift from the Protas line and then another goal by Tuch.
“Fantastic start,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said afterwards. “I thought, right from puck drop, we liked a lot of the things that we were doing early in the game.
“We thought we were handling their pressure, we thought we were playing, especially in this building early on, in a way that you need to play to give yourself a chance and we did exactly that.”
Washington was more passive after the first, but still goals by Jakob Chychrun and Ryan Leonard extended its lead – with the Leonard tally coming on a break after the Hurricanes scored their first goal of the season over 100 minutes deep into it to make it 4-1.
“Even when they scored to make it 4-1, the building comes alive, right?, “Carbery said. “You can feel the momentum and then, boom, [eight] seconds later, Leno, Strome make it 5-1 and essentially put the game out of hand.”
For his part, Capitals goalie Logan Thompson was solid, keeping the club in front out of the gate and making several key stops, allowing just a Sebastian Aho power-play goal in the second, and a redirect goal in the third. Staying in front allowed Washington to take the normally-boisterous crowd out of the game, and grabbing a big two points at a tough venue.
“Going against the defending Stanley Cup champs, that was not an easy one but I thought we stuck together and grinded it out,” said Thompson, who finished with 30 saves.
Other than the Aho goal, the Capitals special teams were good, going 5-for-6 on the kill and 1-for-2 with the extra man, with the Hutson goal coming on a delayed penalty.
While it was just the first game of 84, an impressive win coming against the defending champs and a team expected to be Washington’s biggest roadblock in the Metropolitan Division was a great start for the campaign.
“Teams like Carolina, Florida, even Vegas, those are always measuring stick games, those are teams that have a track record of winning and going to the Stanley Cup Finals so I think that was a great first game for our group,” Thompson said.
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Capitals with a back-to-back in Tampa on Saturday, with Charlie Lindgren expected to get the start. The Lightning, like the Hurricanes, were blanked in their opener so will look to get their offense going in their home debut.
The game will also feature 17-year Capitals veteran John Carlson’s debut against his former team after his trade at March’s deadline.
Certainly if the Capitals can duplicate the first-period effort this season, they will certainly live up to the offseason hype.
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